#CWC19: Strategy Review - Bira 91

Social Samosa in association with Unmetric, takes a look at the Bira 91 World Cup strategy - how the brand's maiden World Cup association turned out.

ICC World Cup 2019 marked an important milestone for the Indian beer brand, Bira 91 that set off to create a global footprint as the Official Partner of the event. According to the Bira 91 World Cup strategy, Bira was the only beer to be poured during all the World Cup matches.

Through the partnership and their communication,
Bira 91 focused on pegging itself as a reliable partner while watching cricket –
be it in the stadium or on a screen.

Facebook

On Facebook Bira 91 has over 100k Likes out of which 4,457 were gained between the World Cup phase, May 01 to July 14.

People talking about the brand spiked between May 01 – May 12, during the rest of the World Cup the conversation spiked again between June 13 to June 18 (June 16 was India – Pakistan match) and again between July 05 to July 10, the final phase of the tournament.

Bira 91 shared 69 posts during the time frame receiving engagement of 327 with 10.6k interactions.12 PM-1 PM was the best time for the brand to share posts in terms of engagement while in terms of days Tuesday had the best Engagement and Monday had the least.  

According to the word cloud, terms that received higher engagement were #CWC19, #Bira91Beer, and #Bira91.

Twitter

Bira 91 has over 7k followers on Twitter and garnered around 1,109 followers during the World Cup period. Top influencer accounts to engage with the brand on Twitter were – ICC, Forbes India, and Cricket World Cup. On average @bira91 sent 2 Tweets per day. Most of their Tweets are Proactive.

The brand shares the most number of tweets on Tuesday while Wednesday saw the maximum engagement. 3 PM to 6 PM had the most number of Tweets, while the best Engagement was for 12 PM to 3 PM.

Also Read: #CWC2019: Strategy Review - Star Sports

Instagram

The brand has over 58k followers on Instagram and got over 4.4k new followers on the platform during the set time period. Further, the engagement recorded between May 01 to July 14 was 7,185, with a considerable spike in engagement on July 09 – the day of India v/s New Zealand semi-finals.

Photo posts received more engagement than video
posts and posts were engaged best between 12 PM-1 PM. Also, Tuesday had the
best engagement while Sunday had the least.        

With their first big-ticket sponsorship, Bira kept their communication concise – centered around the Sixes scored in every match. Further, their offline activities such as – in-stadium shenanigans by the mascot and match screening across the country formed a major chunk of the content hooks.

#BiraSuperSixes

Unlike most brands associating with the World Cup, Bira 91, instead of commenting on the entirety of the match and performance of players focused on the Sixes scored in every match. From the re-play of important sixes to the number of sixes in the match, the brand associated with possibly the happiest moment of a match, managing to skip through the anxiety and stress of who wins or how many wickets are down.

Content &
Contests

The brand relied on traditional approach such as contests with merchandise gratification and the ultimate ‘Win a ticket to World Cup’ proposition. Further, Bira 91 roped in Gaurav Kapoor, who gave a recap of the top moments of the match in every episode.

The brand also executed an activity with South African cricket commentator and former Test and One Day International cricketer, urging their consumers to #AskJonty all doubts and qualms around World Cup 2019.  

Merging Offline
with Social

Bira 91 actively used social media to create awareness around the match screenings happening pan India – giving a view of the fun and celebratory vibe of these events. The brand’s presence on the stadium in the form of the mascot, banners, and the beer itself formed the next portion of their communication.

Hit or Miss

In terms of numbers, Bira 91 managed to show consistent engagement and in terms of brand awareness – well, consumers spotted Ed Sheeran consuming Bira during a match, driving conversations on Twitter. Good run, for a first time World Cup sponsor, definitely.

But those who have followed the brand's marketing trajectory, know how Bira 91 is brand made on the back of word of mouth and UGC.

For instance, Bira 91, ran a contest in June 2018, giving consumers all the creative freedom in the world to play around with the logo, making art. However, the whole UGC angle was missing in their World Cup campaign. Further, high moments such as Ed Sheeran enjoying the beer also seem to have missed the brand's attention. Had the results been bigger & better if Bira 91 played by their strengths? There is no definitive answer to this. Nonetheless, Bira 91 World Cup strategy while clean and crisp lacked the typical Bira flavor.